Representatives of international financial institutions (IFIs), the European Commission and the Norwegian government gathered last week at the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) headquarters in Barcelona to discuss a technical update for the Gaza Strip Desalination Facility project, as well as progress towards financial commitments.

A press release said that the preliminary technical and financial coordination meeting, which brought together representatives of institutions including the country director of the World Bank to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Islamic Development Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the World Bank, the European Commission and a representative of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the stakeholders’ interest in establishing a multi-donor implementation mechanism for the Desalination Facility for the Gaza Strip project.

As the project promoter, the Palestinian National Authority was represented by the Palestinian Minister and Head of the Palestinian Water Authority, Dr. Shaddad Attili, and the Deputy Head Rebhy El-Sheikh.

This was a chance to assess the state of play as regards fund-raising efforts and the way forward, both from a financial and technical point of view. The EIB took the opportunity to inform participants about its ongoing technical assistance in terms of organising the best conditions for the implementation of the project and the timeline of their advice for the project ahead of the bid-launching process.

The three major IFIs (EIB, World Bank and IsDB) have agreed to coordinate among themselves to establish the optimal financial mechanism to encourage and manage donors´ contributions to fund the project. (ENPI Info Centre)